7 smart and sassy crime fiction writers dish on writing and life.
It's The View. With bodies.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

A Chilling Challenge: a guest post by S.J. Bolton

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I have to confess, I thought I "discovered" S.J. Bolton. Last year, I picked up Now You See Me, the first mystery in her DC Lacey Flint series. I ripped through it and went looking for the next,Dead Scared. I was recommending the books to friends, patting myself on the back on being able to introduce people to this great unknown British author... until I found out she wasn't really that unknown. In fact, she's been shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger, the Theakston's Old Peculier
prize for crime novel of the year, the International Thriller
Writers' Best First Novel award and the Mary
Higgins Clark award (four times in a row! Her thrillerAwakening won that
one.)

Okay, I wasn't the first to find out about Sharon Bolton. But - and here we get to today's theme - I wouldn't have discovered her if I hadn't been reading out of my comfort zone. Like a lot of us, I had fallen into the habit of picking up a narrow range of books. British police procedurals (excepting our own Deb Crombie's series) were not on the list. But last year, I challenged myself to dig into books that I normally wouldn't seek out. And you know what? It was a great experience. Here's S.J. (Sharon) Bolton to tell us about her pushing the envelope moments.

Photo: Modernista

On Mothers’ Day this year (10th March
in the UK) I ran a five km race through ankle-deep mud. I scaled
hills, fell down slopes, crawled through drainpipes, clambered over
hay-bales and waded through waist-deep water. I didn’t cover myself
in glory (I finished 4th from last) nor did I behave with
great dignity. ‘Feel free to give me a shove up the arse,’ I told
the man who was coming up behind me in the pipe. ‘Can’t,’ he
replied. ‘My shorts are coming down.’

I’m not a natural runner. But my son
runs, and I’ve learned that the key to family cohesion can lie in
common interests; even if this invariably pushes parents way beyond
their comfort zones.

I run so that I can share something
with my son. Physical fitness is a fringe benefit. Another is the
emotional growth that comes from the willingness to embracing a new
challenge.

Now, life lessons can often be applied
to writing, I find. Writers who grow are those who stretch
themselves. Not so long ago, I met another writer at a dinner. She
described herself, several times, as an ‘unsuccessful writer.’
After a while I asked the obvious - what kind of writer she might
consider to be successful? ‘Someone whose books are in shops, not
just libraries,’ she replied. I was tempted to feel sorry for her.
Until she went on to tell me that for the last twenty years she’d
written and published two books a year. ‘Stop it, now!’ I wanted
to yell at her. ‘Take a break, clear your head, and then WRITE
SOMETHING DECENT!’

This was a writer, forever trapped in
her comfort zone, forever doomed to be disappointed.

I will not be one of these, even
though, ultimately, I may end up shooting myself in the foot. (I
thought my publishers would dump me over my third book BLOOD HARVEST
– three major re-writes before it was accepted.)

I didn’t want to be labeled a writer
of English rural gothic so with my fourth book I went urban. I wanted
to see if I could pull off a credible police procedural, so made all
my main characters police officers. I wondered if I could write an
engaging series character, so created Lacey Flint. It was a major
change and not everyone liked it. A writer friend accused me of going
over to the dark side, because of the book’s twin themes of sexual
abuse and violence against women.

It’s hard, isn’t it? When you’re
living the life you dreamed of, (that plenty of others still long
for) when armed with a reasonably successful product, you find
yourself on the book-a-year treadmill. It’s hard to step off when
you know you might never get back on again. Thunderous applause,
therefore, to Gillian Flynn, whose first novel came out six years
ago. GONE GIRL followed a four year gap. Flynn took her time. She had
confidence in herself. She produced an absolute masterpiece.

I’m not that brave. But I do feel the
time has come for a change. I’m finishing off my fifth Lacey Flint
story and it’s been an effort. Not that I’m tired of Lacey, but I
think I’ve gone as far as I can with this series for now. Time to
move on.

What I’m reasonably good at is
plotting (although it has been suggested that my readers don’t so
much suspend disbelief as throw it gleefully out of the window) and
my books are totally story driven. I’m less good at
characterization. Most crime writers veer naturally towards one or
the other, I find. If they’re character led writers, they write
psychological crime. If action led, they write thrillers and
action-packed mysteries.

I want to see if I can write a book in
which very little happens. A book that’s success hinges on whether
the characters work or not.

So, there will be no subterranean
chases, no helicopter rescues, no mythical creatures lurking in the
shadows and no rural communities haunted by the mistakes and ghosts
of their past. There will be three people, whose lives have been
destroyed by a single event, and who deal with it in very separate
ways.

You know what, I think I’d rather be
stuck in a muddy pipe with a half naked stranger.

Are you willing to step out of your comfort zone, dear readers? How have you challenged yourselves in the past year - and in the year going forward? Let us know, and one lucky commenter will win the hardcover of Dead Scared!

17 comments:

Joan Emerson
said...

I have found that I’m much more likely to read something “new and different” on my eReader than when I am browsing through either the library or the bookstore [where I tend to gravitate toward the same sections/shelves of books]. . . . Sometimes I have been disappointed . . . but more often I have found new authors and books that I’ve really enjoyed . . . . I’m looking forward to reading “Lost” . . . .

Hi Joan, One of the great joys of a bookclub for me, is that it forces me to read out of my comfort zone. I do a lot of complaining about the stuff that really isn't for me, but every now and again, I come across an absolute gem. I do hope you like LOST.

What a fabulous post, and thanks for the insight -- and push -- to stretch beyond comfort zones. I think I'm in one of those right now, and I hadn't realized it until I read your post. Thank you for that. I intend to go back to my wip and shake things up. For my characters and for me.

I agree. Good post; thanks for the inspiration. Doing things that scare us should be part of our lives (not just writers, either). This year I'm going to tackle my fear of public speaking by holding author events and maybe getting a short spot on the local news to promote my book.

Hi again. Thanks for stopping by everyone. Since my last post, my son and I drove 200 miles north to my sister's house in Lancashire (the setting for Blood Harvest) It's so cold here no one's in their comfort zone. I had a quick chat with my agent before leaving home and what she said seems to resonate with a few other comments. To take a leap forward, or make a big change, writers have to take big risks. Scary thought.

Loved the post and congratulation onyour publications. I can't imagine making the run you did! True LOVE.I haven't read any of your work but will make an immediate trip to the library. I started following Criminal Element in this last year and have been reading some the harder stuff and noir - not my usual at all, even though I'm pretty eclectic. I haven't liked most of them, but I've tried them!

Julia, I am very much looking forward to reading one of Sharon's books.

I had another thought regarding change and trying something new, doing something different. Writers hear over and over that they must establish their "brand" (god, I hate that term). Writers spend all kinds of time, effort, and money working to define themselves. How easy is it, then to say... hmm, well, never mind, I'm going to do something entirely different now. I'm just... oh... I think I'll reinvent reinvent myself, get a new "brand."

This was a very important, interesting, and inspiring post. If you know me, you know I am not an athlete, but in August I entered a fund-raising 1/2 mile swim to raise money for ALS research. The swim was in Buzzards Bay -- not a calm swimming pool or lake -- and I "only" did 1/4 mile -- but I did it. The organizers are considering adding a 1/4 mile option for "folks like me."

I am much more daring in my reading than almost anywhere else in my life.

But the challenge for me has been to give myself permission to read for the pure pleasure of it. You Jungle Reds are helping me on that path!

And, I may actually finish a writing project now that I have decided to "lighten up" in that area as well.

The only way I have stepped out of my comfort zone in this last year is that I have started reading YA novels. Basically so I would have something to talk to my middle schoolers in the libeery. Some I have loved and some I have not.

But I am looking forward to reading "Lost"! So excited for a new one of your books!